No Tuxes Or Dresses At Graduation After School Settles Lawsuit With Lesbian

No more tuxedos for boys and dresses for girls come graduation time at high schools in a Mississippi school district.

Copiah County School District will ditch gender-specific graduation outfits and instead require all students to wear a cap and gown as part of a settlement of a lawsuit filed on behalf of lesbian teenager whose tux-wearing photo was excluded from the senior yearbook.

And though it’s not possible for Ceara Sturgis’ photo to be pasted back into the 2009 Weston Attendance Center yearbook, the high school will include it in her class’s composite picture hanging in the school library.

"I'm really happy, I'm excited," Sturgis, now 20, told msnbc.com by telephone Thursday from Orlando, Fla., where she is now living. "I'm proud of my school because they decided to do the right thing."

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